Classes had already been dismissed Tuesday at Naperville Central High School, but seniors Josh Puvogel and Bill Pearce were determined to wait as long as necessary to shake hands with three men who spent 15 years in prison before being cleared of the 1986 murder of medical student Lori Roscetti.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for how optimistic you guys stayed,” Puvogel told Calvin Ollins, who offered a wide smile and a hardy handshake and some chit chat about what gyms the boys workout in.
Earlier, Ollins, 29, along with his cousin Larry Ollins, 31, and Omar Saunders, 33, talked to about 250 juniors and seniors about their life in prison and their fight for freedom–which came in December, after DNA testing failed to link them to Roscetti’s rape and murder.
The predominately white, affluent segment of teenagers were exactly the crowd that the freed inmates and the attorney responsible for their release, Kathleen Zellner, wanted to reach with a presentation that offered students nearly two hours to ask whatever questions they wanted.
“It’s more dramatic to present it to children of affluent backgrounds,” Zellner said. “These are future leaders. These are the people who will be in positions of power.”
The program, presented to students taking such classes as political science, sociology and psychology, was among several that the Naperville attorney has been setting up for the men since their release.
Before Tuesday, the four had visited Wheaton Warrenville South, Wheaton North and Naperville North High Schools. The high school visits, Zellner said, also have helped the men in their healing process.
“It’s very important for them to talk about it. It elicits compassion, and they need to see that, particularly from white people,” she said.
Speaking from a stage in Central’s Little Theater, the three looked into the crowd of teenagers who were around the same age they were when they were sent to prison. They had been falsely accused of hijacking Roscetti’s car in 1986 as she returned from studying at Rush University medical school, and then raping and killing her.
“This will be a situation that you probably have had absolutely no experience with,” Zellner told the students, before giving them an overview of the infamous case.
“This would have to define bad luck,” she said. “When you look at your life sitting here at age 17 or 18, imagine if we took you out of here today and you weren’t free again until you were 31.”
Students lined up at a microphone with questions. What kept you going while you were in prison, asked one student.
“The truth will keep you going,” Saunders said. “We used to say [while in prison], maybe the whole world doesn’t know, but we know the truth and eventually it’s going to come out.”